Finding Christ on the Merry-Go-Round

John Telgren

In my grandmothers tiny little town was a tiny, run down play ground that they used to simply call "the flat" in town.  There was a swing set and merry-go-round in a field covered in sand burrs.  The merry-go-round was usually fun for us children, but not when some of the older kids were around.  The older children would push the merry-go-round just as fast as they could while we, the younger children, held on for dear life.  We knew that if we loosened our grip just a little, the merry-go-round  would fling us off with such force that we might go into space and never be found again.  (Oh the things we believed as children.)  Of course, we begged the older kids not to push so fast. 

Sometimes, the big kids told us to stop whining about going fast and to move to the middle of the merry-go-round.  At first, I refused to go to the middle.  I wanted to stay close to the edge were I could get off in a hurry if one of the big kids approached the merry-go-round to push.  But sometimes I was caught off guard and had to endure the whirlwind ride.  I'm not sure what made me do it, but I tried moving toward the middle.  I noticed the ride wasn't that bad.  In fact, the closer I got to the middle, the less I was in danger of being flung off.  In fact, the most stable place was dead center of the merry-go-round.  I could just sit and not even worry about having to cling on to the bars for dear life.

What an excellent illustration of stabilizing your life on Christ.  The only way to stabilize your life is to center it in Christ.  If you try to center your life anywhere else, you will get flung off in the end. 

Hebrews 12:2 reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  When we focus on him as the center of our life, we will not get flung off, but will remain until God comes to take those at the center of the merry-go-round to their eternal home.